Coriaria belongs to the Coriariaceae family and Cucurbitales order of the plant (plantae) kingdom. It has around 30 species of shrubs, subshrubs, and small trees with a wide but disjunct distribution along the temperate regions of the world. The members of this genus are shrubby plants and its five species can be found at the southern part of the Pacific Ocean to China. Click here if you need a pull up banner stand themed for plants.
The leaves which have no stipules are in whorls or opposite and simple. It measures two to nine centimetres long. Its flowers are planted in racemes at two to 30 cm in length. The plant bears small, greenish flowers with five little petals. After the flowers bloom, its small petals thicken and swell to a juicy-like envelope which surrounds the seeds. Its fruits are shiny black, small, and poisonous in many species. Its branches appear like compound leaves of fern.
Coriaria myrtifolia is specie of the genus that can grow from two to three metres tall. Its leaves are thornless, opposite and single, and measures one to three centimetres broad and six to 10 cm long. Its small and greenish flowers with five petals bloom in racemes from April to June. Its fruits are fleshy black berry achene that looks like a blackberry but is not edible. It grows in other portions of the Mediterranean basin and is very common in some nearby areas. Its Spanish name, ‘emborrachacabras’, pertains to the effects of the leaves on goats that eat them.
Coriaria thymifolia is another specie of the genus with toxic and hallucinogenic berries. Several mountaineers have mistakenly eaten the berries without knowing of their intoxicating effects.
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